“No, we had it.” Alli answered. “We’re in a holding pattern until after the show.”
“So, what am I doing here?” She deadpanned.
“Well, had you bothered to mention that Greg had invited you, it may have tipped me off to the fact that he was planning to propose tonight. Here. In front of everyone.”
Margot’s eyes bugged out. “Is that still the plan?”
Alli scowled at her sister. “Of course not.”
Just then they were joined by their two sets of parents. Alli plastered a beaming smile on her face. “Mom! Dad! What a wonderful surprise.”
“We wouldn’t want to miss such an exciting event.” Smiled Bill, raising a glass toward Greg and his parents.
“And it’s for such a good cause.” Added Linda.
“Mrs. Stone, you’ve really outdone yourself this year - the gallery looks amazing.” Alli offered.
“Thank you Alli, dear, and it’s Pilar. So formal!” Mrs. Stone laughed as if Alli were a confused child. Alli tried to join in the half-hearted chuckles of the collective parents, but just at that moment she glimpsed Jason across the way, and her breath caught in her throat.
He looked dashing to say the least. He turned toward them and Alli’s heart tripped. She remembered the last time she had seen him in a tux. She pushed the unwelcome thought from her mind and tried to subtly shake her head when he started to approach.
Too late. Mrs. Stone’s hawk-like gaze landed on Jason and she waved him over. “There’s our Jason!” The maven clucked. “Mr. Ogden is working on a portrait of Alli. We’ll have to insist on a quick peek tonight, don’t you think?”
Alli could feel Greg stiffen beside her.
Alli’s parents didn’t see Jason through the crowd until he came up right beside them. Margot stood paralyzed, as if watching a horrible car accident, but unable to look away. It all happened so quickly.
Jason smiled an achingly beautiful smile at Alli as he came up to the group, still not having seen the identity of the others present. Linda recognized him immediately, her face blanching and her jaw dropping in a most unladylike manner. Bill was slower to place Jason, not having expected to see him here of all places.
“Taylor.” Bill growled.
Jason sobered. “Mr. Wilson.”
“WHAT?” Roared Greg. “This is Jason Taylor?!” Alli had never told Greg about her past, but clearly Bill had.
Greg moved quickly, pushing Alli safely out of the way and punching Jason squarely in the nose.
Linda stood staring down at her daughter, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest. The past several hours had been a battering of one shock after another. When the school had called to tell her Alli had been rushed to the emergency room, Linda had gone into auto pilot, rushing to the hospital as fast as she could. Then, seeing Jason covered in blood, she was sure Alli was dead. How could someone loose so much blood and not be dead?
Another shock came when the doctor informed her of the reason for Alli’s hemorrhage; An ectopic rupture. Alli had been pregnant? Her Alli? How? Who?
Finally, relief had washed over her, when Alli had been stabilized. She was going to be okay. Everything else could be dealt with later, she was just grateful to have her baby girl alive.
What time was it? Cell phones weren’t allowed in the ICU, and there were no clocks in the room. Alli’s eyes started to flutter.
Alli was shivering. It was an odd sensation. She didn’t feel cold, yet her body continued to quake. It felt as if lead weights had been fastened to her limbs. They were too heavy to lift. Even her eyelids wouldn’t open, the effort of trying leaving her strength sapped.
As she slowly became more aware of her body, she began to feel apprehensive. Something wasn’t right. There was something she needed to remember, but the harder she tried, the more it eluded her.
Where was she? She sifted through the thoughts floating through the foggy ether of her mind. School. The haunted maze. Corn syrup blood. So much blood. Blood. Her blood! The baby! Jason!
Reality came flooding back to Alli, hitting her like a tsunami. She gasped, drawing a huge gulp of air into her lungs. Her mouth was parched, and her tongue felt thick and clumsy. She was trying to scream, but only managed a croak. “Jason.”
Someone grabbed her hand and squeezed. “Alli! Alli baby, Mommy’s here. It’s okay.” Mom? Where am I? Where’s Jason? I need...
“...Jason” she croaked again.
Understanding dawned bright and clear for Linda. With it came more questions and mixed emotions.
Linda called out for a nurse.
Jason had no idea what time it was, or how long he had been in the emergency room waiting area. The sky outside was beginning to lighten. Dawn wasn’t far off. Linda had never returned from behind the double doors. Surely that was a good sign? If Alli were... dead... he faltered at the word, Linda would have come out.
Mary returned from the hospital cafeteria with two cups of coffee and a bread roll. Jason accepted the coffee, but shook his head at the roll. “Jason, you have to eat something.”
His answer was interrupted by a nurse coming through the double doors. “Jason Taylor?” Jason jumped to his feet.
“Is Alli okay?”
“She’s stable. Would you come with me please?”
Jason handed his coffee back to his mother taking comfort in her encouraging smile, then followed the nurse through the double doors.
She lead him down a large hallway, and turned into a small alcove with racks of folded laundry. She offered him a scrub top, and he happily exchanged his blood-stiff dress shirt for the clean garment.
Linda was standing outside the door to Alli’s room when Jason arrived. She could see her hours of terror and anxiety mirrored in his haunted face. It helped, the tiniest bit, knowing this man cared for her daughter. That Alli hadn’t been some cheap distraction for him.
Jason stood before Linda, his body strung tight like a bow string, a question in his eyes.
“She’s asking for you.” Linda’s voice was quiet and rough. She stood aside and motioned for him to go in. He held her gaze a moment, both of them acknowledging so many things unsaid.
The room was dim, the only light coming from a bank of lowered lights behind Alli’s bed, and the monitor screens of the various machines beeping and humming softly.
Alli’s eyes were closed. She looked to be asleep. Moving slowly, so as not to wake her, Jason softly covered her hand with his own. Alli’s eyes fluttered open, and she managed a weak smile.
Jason rubbed the back of his knuckles against her cheek, careful not to jostle the oxygen tube running under her nose. Alli’s eyes filled with tears that spilled over and wet his fingers.
“Oh, Alli, love, don’t cry, sweetheart. You’re okay. You’re okay...”
Alli sniffed. “The baby...” Her voice was a raspy whisper.
“I know, love. Shhh, I know.” He crooned.
Suddenly tears filled his own eyes, and ran silently down his cheeks. Seeing Alli like this, weak, crying, but alive made his heart swell with gratitude and relief. He pulled a stool over and sat next to her bed, holding her hand with one hand and cradling her head with the other, his thumb wiping her tears as they fell.
When Jason entered the family waiting room, he was a little overwhelmed to find it so crowded. Alli’s mother and grandparents were there, along with her sister and a man he assumed to be Alli’s father. His mother was there as well.
They all stared expectantly at him, waiting for him to say something. He directed his words at Linda. “Thank you.”
Linda nodded, but wouldn’t look him in the eye. Alli’s father, Bill, stepped forward. “It’s been a long night for all of us,” He said gruffly. “I think it best we all go home and get some rest.”
He turned to Jason. “Jason, is it?” Jason nodded and stepped forward, offering Alli’s father his hand. Bill refused it, looking coldly into Jason’s eyes. “We’ll be talking soon.”
Turning sharply,
Bill ushered his family out the door, leaving Jason and Mary on their own.
Mary hugged her son tightly. “How is she?”
Jason hugged her back, tucking her head under his chin. “Alive.”
The two of them left the hospital, Jason’s arm draped over Mary’s shoulder, Mary’s arm wound tightly around his waist.
Jason’s head snapped back and he turned with the momentum to shield himself from further attack, but he didn’t move to retaliate.
Alli grabbed ahold of Greg’s arm. “Stop it!” She hissed. “What’s the matter with you?”
Jason straightened, his hand probing gently at his nose. Margot offered him a cloth napkin from a nearby hor’dourve table. He put it to his face to staunch the blood.
“What’s the matter with me?” Greg spat. “You’re sleeping with a pedophile behind my back and you have the gall to ask what’s the matter with me?”
There was an audible gasp from both sets of parents.
“Allison!” Snapped her father. “Is this true?”
Alli turned to her father and fixed him with a steely glare. “That’s really none of your business.” She said succinctly. Then she turned on her heel, hooked her arm through Jason’s and pulled him toward the stairs. She could hear Mrs. Stone chirping appeasing assurances to the nearby onlookers, but a majority of the gala attendees remained blissfully unaware that an altercation had just taken place.
“Look at you.” Alli sighed. “Have you ever managed to wear a tuxedo without getting blood all over it?”
Jason blew a puff of air through his lips in amusement. “Not around you I haven’t.” He replied.
He shooed Alli away from dabbing at his shirt front. “Don’t bother, love. I’ve got another.” Turning toward the bathroom mirror, Jason took stock of his face. “I’ll have a lovely set of matching black and blues, but I don’t think it’s broken.” His nose was an angry shade of red, but hadn’t swelled much yet. He was sure it would be worse in the morning. “Greg has a mean right hook.”
“Thank you. For not hitting him back.” Alli said softly.
Jason shrugged. “While it wasn’t in the best taste for him to jump me without warning... in my own gallery... at a charity event, no less, I can maybe understand his desire to do so.”
Alli smiled tiredly at Jason. “Still, it was noble of you to refrain from retaliation.”
Jason turned to Alli and gently cupped her face in his hands. “I’ve just taken the man’s intended fiancé, Alli. I owed him a shot.” Jason leaned in and kissed Alli softly, careful not to bump her with his nose. “I’m the winner in this scenario, love. And don’t think for a minute that we don’t both know that.”
Alli put her hands to Jason’s cheeks as well. “He never had me, Jason. Not really. It’s always been you.” This time she leaned in and kissed him. It quickly grew heated. Alli was the one to reluctantly break the kiss. “We can’t! You have to speak at the gala.” She said breathlessly. “Hold on.” She gave him a peck on the lips and disappeared for a moment, coming back with a bag of frozen peas. She wrapped it in a dishtowel and handed it to Jason. “Here. Put these on your nose.”
Jason held the peas against his nose while Alli helped him out of his jacket and unfastened the studs on his bloodied shirt. She found a replacement shirt in his closet and helped him into it, refastening all the studs and cuff links.
“There. You look like a proper gallery owner now.” She assured him. He smiled around the bag of frozen peas.
Alli’s phone buzzed in her purse. “It’s from Margot.” She said. “My parents and Greg have gone. Let’s go give that speech of yours so we can put this night behind us.”
“Alli,” He said softly. “You know this isn’t over.”
“I know.” She answered. “But whatever we have to face in the way of opposition from our families, this time we face it together.”
“Jason, let us go with you.” Mary looked imploringly at her son.
“No, Mom, this is something I need to do alone.” He said gently.
“At least hold off for another day. Let Bill calm down some...”
“No Mom. Alli should be coming home soon, and I want this resolved before she does.”
Mary nodded her understanding, and gave her son a quick hug. “Alright. Call if you need us.”
Jason wasn’t looking forward to his talk with Alli’s father. Alli had made it more than clear to him how her father would react to the news of their relationship. He could only imagine how much worse it would be now that said relationship had nearly cost his daughter her life.
Alli’s gran, Evelyn, answered the door and shepherded him into the dining room.
“Bill will be down in a minute, dear. Can I get you some tea? Or something stronger?”
Jason couldn’t be sure but he thought Evelyn had winked at him as she said ‘stronger’.
“No, thank you Mrs. Larsen.”
“Oh, enough with this ‘Mrs. Larsen’ foolishness. I’ve told you a hundred times to call me Gran.”
Jason nodded meekly. “Sorry. Gran.”
The old woman beamed with satisfaction. She gave him an affectionate pat on the cheek. “That’s a good lad. Now you’re sure you don’t want anything for fortification purposes? God love him, my son-in-law can be a real horse’s ass.”
Jason rubbed the back of his neck in discomfort. “Under the circumstances, I’d say he has every right to be.”
Gran snorted and smacked at the air in dismissal. “Pshaw. Nonsense. You didn’t stab the girl. You fell in love with her.” Gran put her bony fists onto her hips. “Do you know how old I was when I fell in love with my Darryl?” She didn’t give Jason the chance to answer. “Fourteen. And he a grown man of twenty two. No one thought a thing of it, neither.”
Jason didn’t know how to respond. He decided to go with a wordless nod, then, “Well, those were different times.”
Gran pursed her lips. “Gah! ‘Different times’ nuthin’!” Her face took on a serious expression. “You’re a good man, Jason Taylor. My granddaughter is lucky to know you. I’m just sorry you have to muddle your way through all this noise.”
Gran patted his arm in parting and motioned for him to sit. Jason took the seat offered to him and waited. And waited. The house was quiet. He could hear the steady ticking of a clock in the other room. Muffled noise from a television program was coming from the direction Gran had gone. Jason was becoming agitated. Was this some kind of power play? Was Bill intentionally making him wait? Jason felt a niggling of guilt at his inimical assumption.
Suddenly Bill entered the dining room, and judging from his face and demeanor, Jason hastily amended his feelings, all guilt washed aside. This man was definitely screwing with him on purpose.
Jason rose to offer Bill his hand, knowing full well he was setting himself up for another rejection, but making the gesture none the less. Bill stopped him with a wave of his hand. “Please, stay seated.”
So Bill could stand over him? Oldest power trick in the book. Jason had a decision to make. He could submit to this man, cower before him and beg his forgiveness, or meet him respectfully as an equal. Jason chose the latter.
“I’ll stand, thank you.” He answered.
Bill’s mouth snapped shut in a hard line, but he said nothing.
They stood like that for a beat, sizing each other up. Finally Bill spoke.
“Can you give me one good reason why I shouldn’t turn you into the authorities, and have your teaching credentials revoked?”
So it was going to be like this. Jason had been expecting this, but still hoping somewhere in the back of his mind that it wouldn’t come to this.
He looked Bill in the eyes. Jason’s breath caught in his throat. Alli had her father’s eyes. Bill’s deep blue gaze bore into Jason, and it was as if Alli were here in the room with them.
“For myself, sir? No. You have every reason to do all that you say and more. My actions were unforgivable.”
Bill’s eyes wide
ned the slightest bit in surprise. Jason went on.
“I would ask you to reconsider though, for Alli’s benefit. As reprehensible as we can both agree my actions were, and as undeserving as I am of her love, Alli cares for me. I think if you were to take action against me, it would be troubling for her to say the least.”
Bill narrowed his eyes. “So you’re using a father’s love of his daughter as black mail? That’s disgusting. Though, I can’t say I’m surprised in the least considering what I know of you so far.”
Jason swallowed an angry retort. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he met Bill’s gaze once again. “I don’t know what it is you think happened between your daughter and me sir, but judging from your low opinion of me, I’m thinking you’ve got it at least half wrong-”
Bill exploded with rage, effectively cutting off the rest of Jason’s explanation.
“What I think happened between you and my daughter?!” He roared. Margot came in from the side door, startled by the sudden screaming. Bill, in his rage, failed to notice her arrival. “I don’t think what happened between you and my daughter. I KNOW what happened. How dare you stand before me, begging me to let you off the hook and using my daughter’s misguided feelings for you as a reason.” Bill’s face was flushed with anger. A vein pulsed erratically in his neck. “You seduced an innocent girl, got her with child, and abandoned her to deal with it alone! You should be in prison, and I intend to do everything in my considerable power to make sure that’s just where you end up!”
“DADDY!” Margot screeched. She yanked at his arm to get his attention.
Bill seemed surprised to see her standing there, hanging off his arm.
“Daddy you’ve got it all wrong! Jason’s not a monster.”
Bill shook her off of his arm. “Stay out of this Margot.”
“No Dad. You’re making Jason out to be some sexual predator, and he’s not!”
Strawberry Wine Page 22